A Blog

Happiness in the Belly of the Space Whale

Preface

This is a story about the universe and human being. It begins at the
beginning, ends somewhere in the middle and finishes with the meaning of
life. Sounds a pretty tall order? Well, it comes as the product of 26
years of research and experience. Although a short-time in any scale, my
life till then was full of unusual experiences and was a roller-coaster
that, although painful at times, was ultimately a voyage of discovery.
What you are about to read is a story based on the scientific story of
our universe. It is a best guess about the nitty-gritty details, but the
general tale is true. No matter what contradictory evidence is provided,
it cannot change the ultimate outcome of this story. Which may be a
disappointment for all of us, but means we can be confident in that one
fact. So, enjoy this tale as I enjoyed telling this story. Though it may
be an ultimately fatalistic journey we are to embark on, it has filled
me with euphoria, telling it. Be happy explorer.

Part I:

The Beginning of our Universe

The universe began some 15 billion years ago as a single, tiny point
of high energy and high temperatures. Was there anything before? Nobody
knows, but if there was, it was certainly different from what was to
come. Where did the single point of high energy and high temperatures
come from? Again, nobody knows. Perhaps this was the first time the
universe was to be born, or perhaps it had happened a million times
before. Importantly, it matters not to our particular story.

Modern science can get very close to the beginning of the universe but
our theories break down just before the beginning happens. This is
because our theories of the very big and the very small, have not yet
been unified. One day, it is very possible that this will be
accomplished. Until then we must accept that there was a beginning;
something which not only seems reasonable, but the evidence for which
still remains today. We can start this tale a second after the initial
event that triggered the Big Bang. At this time the temperature of the
universe was some 10 million degrees Kelvin; much too hot for atoms to
exist. Instead their constituent particles existed independently along
with a range of other exotic particles. The universe at this time was
homogeneous and uniform. However as the seconds ticked by, the universe
cooled and expanded rapidly. This process of cooling and expansion, led
to transitions in the basic building blocks of the universe. What had
started as a quark-gluon plasma, cooled into baryons (the elementary
particles) which after some 300,000 years, combined to form the first
atoms. This material was not evenly spread throughout the early
universe, but was asymmetrical, forming dense areas. These more dense
areas collapsed in on themselves, driven by the force of gravity, to
produce the first stars. Some billion years after the Big Bang, the
first galaxies formed and light illuminated the darkness of space.

The universe continued to expand and evolve. Older stars exploded in
spectacular and devastating supernovae, sending their remnants out in
all directions to feed newer stars. Some 10 billion years ago, our own
galaxy, the Milky Way formed. It is estimated that the Milky Way
contains some 200-400 billion stars, of which ours is just one. Our own
solar system formed in much the same way as the rest of the universe.
The solar nebula was a large gas cloud, which slowly cooled and
condensed, due to gravity, forming a proto-star at its centre. Around
it, the gas cooled and condensed into proto-planets. After some 100
million years, the heat within the proto-star reached thermonuclear
levels, and our sun, Sol, was born. Around the sun, the proto-planets
cooled and coalesced.

The earth is currently estimated to be some 4.55 billion years old. It
is one of currently 10 planets, so far identified and one of numerous
other astral bodies that orbit the sun. The early earth was an alien
place, where life could not survive. At first there was no crust and
just a hot molten core. Over time, leftover objects from the beginning
of the solar system, such as large asteroids, impacted with the
proto-earth, adding material to the chemistry of the planet, but also
causing catastrophic damage. One huge encounter with a passing body not
much smaller than our own planet, left the earth shattered but with the
moon as a permanent companion.

As catastrophic impacts from wandering stellar bodies lessened, the
earth cooled. A solid crust allowed water to accumulate, both from the
atmosphere and from encounters with comets. Slowly the oceans filled.

The Beginning of Life

How life first developed and where it first originated, is as yet,
impossible to say. Some scientists have speculated that life began on
other worlds and was transported here deep in comets and asteroids. What
we do know is that life must have developed from inanimate organic
molecules (since these make up the basis of all that life we recognise
today). So how did organic molecules become something that we recognise
as life? One possible scenario is that life did not begin on land (as
the land of the early earth was inhospitable and incompatible with
life), nor did it begin in the upper levels of the sea (where again
increased solar radiation made it incompatible with the development of
life). Instead life could have first evolved in the rich, organic soup
surrounding deep undersea vents. Today such environments represent
niches independent of the sun which support exotic organisms. Deep in
the undersea environment, thermal vents could have supplied the energy
which would lead to the development of life. As complex organic
molecules formed through natural processes (akin to the action of
enzymes) some were more successful at replicating than others.
Eventually molecules formed which accidentally built cell walls. These
more hardy molecules were the very basic building blocks of life.
Eventually the energy provided by the hot radioactive core of the planet
and millions of years of time and random recombination and selection
resulted in life forms that we could understand as life. Single celled
organisms evolved from these very basic beginnings. Mitochondria (the
power houses of every cell) are evidence of cells working together.
Mitochondrial DNA is passed down only through the female and is
independent of your own genetic heritage. It points to a time in the
history of this planet, when two different types of cells fused, to work
together. Not because of intelligent design, but because random genetic
variation between different cells led to some working together. This was
tremendously more successful than the alternative mechanisms at the
time, and eventually became the dominant form of life. Early organisms
could be thought of as simple machines, taking energy from the vents to
use it to reproduce and propagate. Better mechanisms developed allowing
the organisms to move into new environments and exploit new resources,
making them more successful. As cells worked together they began to
develop sophisticated adaptations to the environment. This is not a
magical process suggesting intelligent design. It is again a consequence
of genetic mutations, which could infer new and sometimes dramatically
useful new adaptations. Success would lead to propagation; an explosion
in numbers and a domination of resources, until the time a new and more
successful organism developed. This is how all life evolved. Bacteria,
viruses and you!

Beyond the Simple

Life in the sea developed quickly and evolution helped drive this
process faster and faster. There were setbacks when space debris smashed
into the planet destroying much of life, but eventually the bombardments
got less frequent and life had a chance to colonize new areas. Life
moved from the sea, to the land and back again. Perhaps the most
spectacular life forms yet identified are the dinosaurs. The dinosaurs
ruled the planet for some 165 million years. Just ponder that for a
moment. Our species, Homo sapiens, evolved some 250,000 years ago. Yet
the dinosaurs existed on this planet for a length of time that is
practically incomprehensible. They occupied nearly every environment on
the planet, from the forests, to the plains, to the seas and the air.
They were hugely successful creatures. Our own ancestors were merely
rodent-like creatures during their reign. And yet, it is we who are here
today and not them. The great extinctions of the dinosaurs are not yet
fully understood. Maybe it was not one single event, but a myriad of
different causes. Perhaps it was galactic debris or global warming. We
may never know the exact reasons for the mass extinctions, but we know
that they did occur.

With the dinosaurs gone, the mammals had a chance to take advantage of
the niches left behind. Mammals quickly adapted from small rodent
creatures, into a range of creatures, mimicking the variety of life seen
in the age of the dinosaurs. Velociraptor genes were replaced by sabre
tooth tiger genes. Importantly brain size increased to allow for ever
more complex behaviours and reactions. As species got cleverer, they got
more social. Our primate ancestors were in many ways very like
ourselves. Humans share approximately 95% of their genes with
chimpanzees, so only 1.6% of human DNA is responsible for all the
differences between the two species. We share a common ancestor with all
of the great apes, who themselves share a common ancestor with all of
the primates. It is easy to see the ways in which we are connected to
our closest living relatives. The great apes all share human
characteristics and are yet, not human.

Just over 3 million years ago, an ape creature evolved the ability to
walk on two legs. Already a social creature, living in small groups of
related and semi-related individuals, early humans were very much still
apes. Chimpanzees have been documented using tools and early humans no
doubt did the same. With the new upright posture, the ape was able to
fashion tools, beyond the sticks and stones of its more primitive
ancestors. Over time, the new species moved out of Africa, to far
reaching corners of the globe. Hunter gatherer man was a proficient
killer, working together to accomplish feats never before seen in
nature. A small group of men were able to bring down woolly mammoth,
elephants and buffalo. Prey, which although dangerous, requiring great
skill and cooperation, also provided bounty never before seen. Such prey
gave not only plentiful meat, but also bones for weaponry, skins for
clothing and shelter. With the prosperity gained by the hunting of big
game, social interactions became ever more sophisticated and slowly one
of the most important features of our species developed. Language
allowed communication beyond the simple. Spoken language first allowed
humans to interact and plan. Be it hunting, gathering other food stuffs,
or tackling problems that they encountered. With language came the
beginning of something else, unique to humans. Consciousness, of the
kind that we recognise, is directly linked to language. We cannot
readily imagine really thinking without at least basic symbols to
manipulate. Consciousness and language allowed early humans to do things
which had never been done before. They built on the earlier tool use and
ran with it. Since that early time, technology has been one of the most
important things that humans have ever discovered and with it they began
to subsume nature itself.

Fire was one of the first technologies the human species harnessed to
substantially improve their chances of survival. It had a multitude of
uses, from providing vital heat during the winter months to cooking the
spoils of their hunting. This meant early man began to live longer.
Knowledge could be accumulated orally and passed on to younger group
members. No longer would adaptations need to be encoded within the
species’ DNA. Now knowledge of the healing plants, the hunting grounds,
the stories of their ancestors could be transmitted down the generations
and even traded between groups. Innovation and communication have been
the driving force of mankind’s evolution ever since.

The Beginning of Civilisation

Agriculture began some 8000 years ago in Mesopotamia. This was the
beginning of civilisation. The change from man as a hunter gather to a
more modern way of living. Agriculture allowed humans to settle in one
location permanently and provide a more balanced and predictable diet
than had ever been available. This again led to health improvements
again leading to further longevity. Settlements allowed work to be
distributed amongst members of a group. Skills could be selected. Jobs
assigned. Thinkers could now be admonished from hunting and protecting
and could turn their attention to the big questions of the universe.
Governments were formed to rule over the growing populations. Technology
developed to ease living conditions. Humans began to look at the
universe and answer some of the questions that had long evaded them.
Religion was one way of answering those questions. Spiritual beliefs had
long been part of the human psyche. The greatest fear of all was the
fear of death. It was the loss of a family member to eternal sleep. But
what happened to the loved ones in the group who died? Perhaps it was
incomprehensible to prehistoric man that nothing happens after death.
From the very earliest times man had believed in magic. The patterns
found in nature hinted at its supernatural basis. The seasons could be
predicted from measuring shadows. The universe was ruled by gods who
participated and directed human affairs. Something as special as our
species could not just die. The Earth was at the centre of the universe,
with humans at its pinnacle. And so the human need to explain the
universe, coupled with human ego, led to beginning of the cult of the
ego. Man was made in God's image. Not only was he the centre of the
universe, he believed himself unique in it too. No other animal
exhibited the same level of complexity. No animal exhibited
consciousness. Men believed themselves special. Egypt's pyramids are a
monument to human ego and the belief in God.

The Modern Age

The belief in God dominated and dictated human civilisation for nearly
4000 years. Religions came and went during that time. Rome once ruled
the world, with its pagan take on the nature of the universe only to be
dominated by Christianity. With the industrial revolution, the modern
age dawned and man dominated nature completely. The Victorian era saw
science combat against the religious imperialism of the past and
Darwin's Origin of the Species, was perhaps the most instrumental tool
which shifted opinion. Other species were driven to extinction.
Resources exploited. Man warred on himself in two world wars and
millions died. Civilisation brought both bloodshed and increased riches.
In the west, life today is very different from that which hunter
gatherer man would have experienced. Today, poverty is reduced,
education is universal, health care available to many, longevity is far
greater than in the past, and child fatality is down. Disease kills
fewer than ever. The internet provides communications over the globe
instantaneously. News is instantaneous. Money is instantaneous. America
is seen as the ultimate decadent power, when most of its population
slowly kill themselves through obesity. Conversely millions die around
the globe from starvation in poor developing nations. Money really does
make the world go round. The fate of the future is however already set
in stone. It is inevitable. As our own deaths are inevitable.

An Imagined but very Possible Future

It is a million years in the future. Over that time mankind had
experienced a multitude of disasters. Wars were fought, where billions
where killed by weapons of mass destruction. Terrible plagues have
devastated the world continuously. Asteroids nearly destroyed
civilisation and our species twice. Yet despite this disasters that have
always plagued man, some have survived. Our species is not yet extinct.
Our unique ability to control technology has always helped us rebuild,
far quicker than nature can select the fittest genes. Technologies are
developed which can track distant asteroids and destroy them before they
become a danger to the planet. Vaccines are developed, and more
importantly, poverty and war are eradicated from the planet.
Nanotechnology and biotechnology finally result in solutions to feed the
whole population and to ensure fitness and survival for all. Politically
the world has united, behind common goals, with shared success. Nobody
wants. Nobody feels disenfranchised.

But the planet cannot support a now healthy and altruistic species as
ours. rather than wait until there is no more space on the planet,
initiatives are developed. Global schemes to continue the human species.
First our own planet’s unused spaces are utilised. Cities reach both
high into the sky, and deep under the ground. The oceans support huge
undersea metropoleis, all of which house billions of humans, working
together. Even the most inhospitable locations are made habitable by
huge biosphere domes. Antarctica is the last continent to be permanently
inhabited by substantial populations of humans. The moon is also made
habitable connected to the Earth by huge cables with platforms that
transport resources and people to our natural satellite.

Finally space is seen as the ultimate saviour of our species. Man has
long known that our sun will wreak the ultimate punishment on our
planet. If we are to continue for longer still, the near infinite
possibilities that await us in space must be sought. Mars provides a
second home from home and is terraformed and adapted to be very much
like a second earth. With great experience of developing undersea
cities, Europa’s icy undersea world is slowly made another resource for
humans to exploit. However the solar system is no safe haven. Science
may not have not developed light speed travel, but advances in medicine
have allowed much increased longevity and suspended animation. The first
deep space human colonies are sent on spaceships in suspended animation
and sent with sophisticated AI that can find new homes. If new homes are
not found, then technologies exist to adapt our own human being to
improve or adapt our design to fit the myriad of planets that can
sustain life, of a sort.

The Death of Home

It is 6.5 billion years in the future. The Sun sits large in the sky
of the dying earth. The land has been scorched bare. The conditions on
land are no longer conducive to life. Very little can survive in the
high temperatures, caused by the ever growing sun. Life however
continues in the oceans (not just in sealed scientific observatories).
The polar icecaps no longer exist but have given the oceans a reprieve
from death. Slowly the water evaporates into space and the seas become
more and more saline. Life is slowly poisoned in the oceans until only
the hardiest organisms and the human probes, survive.

Finally the oceans are boiled away and that which had been solid rock
becomes molten lava once more. The earth becomes almost as it was at its
birth and yet this is its death. As the sun grows ever closer, the
temperature on earth increases until the earth itself is boiled away,
inside the corona of the sun. It is the death of home. No longer will
the place that we evolved on exist. It will now, just be a memory. The
death of earth is watched as humans continue their existence on Mars and
elsewhere. The increase in temperature which has destroyed the earth,
has given Mars a new lease of life. Its frozen oceans are reborn and
life continues on our sister planet. Terra-forming Mars began millions
of years ago to support the ever growing human population. It is now a
lush, almost earth-like place. But the fate of Mars is ultimately sealed
as Earth's was. We live on Mars until the sun engulfs it, as it did the
Earth and another home boils away. Finally the sun collapses in, when
the hydrogen has depleted, ending in a huge explosion, signalling the
death of the solar system.

Just as the solar system died, our galaxy contains an even greater
danger. The Milky Way contains a super-black hole at its centre. One
that has fed on the galaxy for millennia and will one day consume our
own dead solar system. Technology has allowed us to escape both the
dying solar system and its annihilation in the super black hole. Had we
not been able to leave the galaxy, our eventual fate would be to join
our dead solar system in the black hole. But in 10 billion years, our
descendants may watch the death of the Milky Way. A galaxy that has been
our home for many millions of years.

But let us imagine that humans are spread far and wide. Far flung we
are, across the universe. There has been evolution due to the isolation
of populations. Darwin’s finches are reborn amongst a myriad of
galaxies. But unlike Darwin’s finches, humans have had technology by
their side for millennia. Genetic engineering and nanotechnology have
led to a variety of adaptations being incorporated into the human
genome. An ability to process hostile atmospheres, increased longevity
and resistance to disease has given humans an ability to adapt to almost
any environment. Black holes have been harnessed to supply near infinite
power supplies, supporting billions ands billions of colonies. War,
famine, disease are at an end. Our energy needs are met and over
compensated. No body wants. Machines have reached a complexity far
outstretching our own meagre abilities. Natural selection reborn with
nanotechnology, genetic engineering and cyber-psychology. We share the
universe with creatures much greater than ours. Men stand on alien
worlds and experience things that no one had ever imagined possible.
They traverse worm holes and develop longevity beyond our imaginings..
We are a hybrid species. Homo sapien no more. Part alien, put computer,
put earth ape. We find ways of transferring consciousness into different
mediums. Of preventing physical death from ending our conscious
experience. It can live on in and be transferred into cloned bodies. We
live then, in a time when man is invincible. Can withstand any obstacle.
Where there is no pain, suffering or death. We have become gods. We have
come a long way since that first Big Bang.

The Space Whale

It is 160,000 billion years in the future. Just as we have seen the
evolution of life on earth adapt and change, evolution can occur on a
much larger scale. Over the millions of years technology and biology
have worked together to produce a pinnacle. Yet this process is
intelligent design. Conscious, intelligent creatures such as our own
species were instrumental in developing this pinnacle. Now however there
is only being left in the universe, an Omega Point. A place where
evolution culminates. Long ago a creature was developed, which could
store all the consciousness of every biological organism it encountered.
When it did so, the organism would be incorporated into the creature,
and yet remain individual Inside the creature, experience was very much
like the idea that our ancestors had of heaven. Yet this is not a
mystical place. Conscious creatures from throughout the universe have
long sought the Belly of the Space Whale, as a refuge till the end of
time. Indeed, inside its belly, a billion, billion consciousnesses
experience near eternal-life. Their life spans increased far beyond
their genetic and biological potential. Those that survived and
successfully entered the belly of the Whale, have lived in a near
heavenly existence. It is an incorporeal being. Where once we had been
purely physical, now in the belly of the space whale all life, but one,
is consciousness. Constrained by biology, it is one and everything; it
is eschato. It has watched the universe expanding at an ever increasing
rate. It has seen galaxies that were once neighbours, now sit on the
opposite sides of near infinite expanses. More worryingly it has watched
stars die, and no new ones form to take their place. One by one, that
which had illuminated the darkness was being snuffed out for ever. Now
it would take more time to get from one side to the other, than has ever
existed. Only a handful of stars are left and they are too far apart to
keep the darkness from falling.

The Two Ends

The whale chose its final resting place along time ago. It sits next
to the gigantic black hole, which once sat at the heart of the Milky
Way. It has long destroyed our own solar system, but has sustained the
Whale with energy. However the Whale has watched the matter get less
common and has even seen the end in the darkness. It can do nothing to
stop the inevitable death of it, and every consciousness in the
universe. And then the light, which illuminated the universe, soon after
its birth, is gone. The universe is now a cold, dark place. With no
life. No activity. Nothing. The end. The only other likely scenario, is
that sometime in the distant future, the universe will begin to
contract. Where it had first expanded exponentially, now the dark energy
that fills space, began to pull it back in on itself, on the inevitable
path, back to a single point. The contraction of the universe, causes
massive explosions. Those populations not destroyed by black holes or
supernovae, move inwards to the centre of the universe, watching the sky
shrink.

We are again left with the whale. It has saved as many consciousnesses
as it can. Billions live out their conscious experience in its belly.
This time it orbits another black hole, feeding itself and sustaining
itself, this time at the centre of the universe. The point where it all
began, and the place where it would all end. Instead of the black hole
dying, the gravitational effects of the rapidly contracting universe
overcome the whale, until the universe reaches a single point. And then
everything that was our universe is the single point again. Nothing
exists. No remnants. No archaeology. It is wiped clean. Perhaps it
starts again, with another big bang. Perhaps not. But if it does start
again, it will not result in the same universe. It will be another
universe, an alien universe. Life may develop, but it will not be us.
And it will not know of us, except in the ponderings of philosophers and
cosmologists, theorising our existence. But perhaps it won’t start
again. And then that really would be the end.

Part II:

What to do now?

So then. We stand now with the meaning to life, the universe and
everything. There is no purpose. No design. No God. No survival of
death. No survival after the end of the universe. One day everything in
this universe will no longer exist. Does that knowledge about the
universe have an effect on our lives in the Twenty-First Century. Today
we have a world divided by poverty. People die every day. 2005 began
with the death of some 350,000 people, caused by a tsunami sweeping
across the pacific. Hurricanes brought both the civilised and developing
countries to their knees, revealing the very fragility of civilisation.
Everyday hundreds of babies are born, increasing our population year in
and year out. Billions of humans have existed and billions may exist in
the future. Yet from our own personal perspective, we are special and
unique.

But unlike previous generations, we know that the sun does not revolve
around the earth. That we are not the centre of the universe. We are in
fact, an insignificant aberration. The universe become aware of itself.
Organic, inanimate molecules, assembled in such a configuration, which
produces bodies, brains and us. We are an accident of natural selection.
Had the dinosaurs not been wiped out; had the Earth been slightly nearer
the sun, or slightly further; had the moon destroyed the planet; had
Homo sapiens not become the dominant human species; we would not be
here. The list is endless. We are not here through divine intervention,
but accident. We are driven by our ability to potentially solve any
problem; except a way to solve our inevitable annihilation with the rest
of the universe.

Since there is no design and no purpose to the universe and that one day
the universe itself will die, what should we do? The universe become
conscious indeed, but what to do with that consciousness? Pause for a
moment and take a look at your body. Each part is certainly no accident.
Importantly, more than anything, your being highlights design. You are a
pinnacle on this planet. The most technologically advanced; the only
creature to achieve consciousness in the form that we recognise; the
most powerful and perhaps in many ways, the most successful – so far.
This success, more than any other fact, has been responsible for one of
humankinds’ greatest fallacies. Most refuse to recognise our true
nature; our true being. Why we are the way we are?

We have already seen that to get to this point has taken millions of
years of evolution. That life upon this planet has occupied many and
varied forms. That we are relative latecomers in a race that has seen
the planet dominated by life, in almost every environment. The sun,
which has provided life with the energy it needs to assume its complex
forms, will one day destroy this planet and all life left upon it. But
until the time when the Sun dies, it will provide energy for our planet
as it has done for millions of years. We have seen how life first
developed and evolved. That life is driven by natural selection. That
many more individuals are born, than survive and that survival implies
fitness to an environment. Survival of the fittest. Human beings are
fit. But, we are the product of natural selection. We have been
designed, not by a god, or an intelligence, but by an almost mechanical
design process. Random changes in DNA, through mutation, cause new genes
to develop, some of which give advantages to the organism to survive.
Swapping genes between individuals, gave even greater survival benefits,
as successful genes ensured that they would be passed on to future
generations. This is not a conscious process. It is a by-product of the
bad genes failing to survive. Energy from the sun and time, has driven
this process and led to the most complex biological machines, including
our brain.

So a gene’s reason for existence is to reproduce itself. That is it. Our
purpose is ultimately the same. To propagate copies of our genetic
material throughout the universe. Look at your hands. They have a
purpose. They are amazingly useful. They allow us to manipulate tools.
As we have seen, at first hands fashioned basic weapons and tools for
collecting food. But over the last 250,000 years and with successive
generations, human hands have done things which no other animal can
comprehend. Hands have built atom bombs, releasing the power of e=mc2.
Hands have gone into space, and orbited our planet. Hands have built
space probes that have even left the solar system. But where do hands
come from?

We can look at the fossil record and hypothesise that hands probably
first developed with amphibious creatures, some 20 million years ago,
for wading through dense mangrove swamps. The amphibious creatures
evolved from fish. Individuals that had mutated genes, giving them
slightly more hand like flippers, were able to survive in the swamps,
better than their flipper kin. Natural selection and time and energy
from the sun drove the process. Your hand was once a flipper.

Step back a second. If your hand used to be a flipper, what about your
whole being. And yes. Your genes are the culmination of this time,
energy and natural selection process over the last 20 million years. You
are not made by god, or intelligence. You were the product of natural
selection, a descendent of the organisms that were able to survive and
reproduce. So what of that purpose.

When the universe ends there will be no genes. There will be no
propagation. There will be no energy. No resources to exploit. No sun.
Nothing. Therefore following even our evolved predisposition to spread
our genes, means nothing. It is itself a bad joke. Genes came together
and those that lead to improvement survived. Ever increasing complexity,
led to greater improvements. Niches were filled. Resources exploited.
All to propagate genes. And finally natural selection was itself
overcome and out evolved by our technical prowess. Technological
evolution has been the greatest driving force in our development. Your
purpose in life is to propagate. And yet, there it is, a futile task and
one with no underlying intelligence.

And then we get to the cult of the ego. As man has overcome natural
selection’s hold, he has developed a sense of infallibility. The idea of
man the supreme, gods that would intervene and make the universe better,
these are human ideas. Karl Marx called religion the opiate of the
people. He was correct. Religion gives purpose and hope to humans. It
allows some to live their entire lives with an understanding and reason.
It is false understanding and false reason, but this matters not to many
humans. However human being is really the opiate of everybody. Every
human thing you see around you has been designed and created with a
purpose. But since we have no purpose, what point the purpose of our own
creations?

We are born into a culture of human being. We are taught about our
purpose. Indoctrinated into the cult of the ego. We are taught history,
religion, science and art. We are shown a wondrous universe of
possibilities. We are given a purpose. Told to strive for something. To
make the universe a better place. As children we do not understand the
real nature of the universe. We do not understand that one day the
entire universe will be dead and that our purpose is in fact futile.
Instead we are seduced by ideas that take hold in our brain and feed us
with purpose. We are driven by a need for purpose, forced by the
biological heritage of millions of years and the cultural heritage of
250,000 years. But what takes hold? Richard Dawkins called them memes.
Ideas that reproduce akin to genes. Some memes take hold inside your
brain and feed it with purpose. Brains came before memes. It is like
software running on hardware. Every year the software is upgraded,
updated, not necessarily with better software, just different adapted
software. Culture is not dependent on any underlying reality. Culture
just requires more than one person to be persuaded of it. Most of us
will work and participate in this illusion of purpose and culture for
our entire lives. We will believe that we made a difference to the
world. That our lives meant something. We toil at work almost our entire
adult lives, to die, believing the lie. What was it for?

Imagine you are on your deathbed. You look back at your life. Were you
happy? Did you experience significant periods of happiness? I hope you
did. Although I don’t really care. What I care about and what you should
care about was, did I have a nice life? I would imagine that in the
present day, most people would say no. The people starving in Africa.
The people toiling in their job that they despise. The alcoholic. The
depressive. You didn’t have a nice life? Hmmm. Let’s just ponder that
for a moment. The average western life expectancy is 65 for a man. Just
imagine you are that 65 year old. You have worked most of your life.
Let’s say you’re a doctor. An eminent surgeon. You feel you helped lots
of people. Many survived because of your actions, because of your great
skill. Without you, those people would have died. If you had existed a
millennium ago, they all would have died and you would not have been a
doctor. You are great. You are a god. You are just about to die; to give
up your membership of the human race.

One day the whole universe will no longer exist. Ultimately nobody
remembers. Ultimately nobody cares. There is no Higher Intelligence; No
God to let the righteous into heaven. What remains of our atoms will be
ripped apart when the solar system dies. And the remnants of that will
be destroyed in the big freeze or the big squeeze. One way or another,
everything you know will be wiped out of existence.

Okay, at the point of your death, you are given a choice. You have 10
seconds to respond after which you will die. The choice is this. You can
either die, having saved all those people, toiled all your life, worked
those long hours for the accolade, or you can have those events erased
from your personal history and replaced with time with your family and
friends. Your loved ones. Happy times. When you smiled and realised that
though there is pain and suffering in the world, you and your family are
good, safe and happy. Without sickness; without death; without pain.
What would your answer be? Spend your life saving lots of people, whose
very existence will be wiped away, as will your own. Your deeds. Your
acts. Everything. Or spend the 65 years of your life happy and loved.
With no worry. No stress. Just peace. And knowledge that though the
universe will one day die (which it is something that you know will
certainly happen, with no chance of reprieve) that you and your family
spent that brief, unique time that we have together, in this accident
which is a universe and that you didn’t waste a second. You realised
that every moment is precious and was happy. But to return to the cult
of the ego.

Every moment is precious. Stop what you’re doing. Stop reading and look
around you. There will be signs of the cult of the ego. There will be
people around you doing a job or you will have a job. Think about what
you do for a living. The doctor, the road sweep, the unemployed guy.
What difference do you make, to the ultimate outcome of the universe?
Some you think? Really? Didn’t we just think that the doctor would give
up his time to be happy? What is the point in toiling for a future that
will never come? Even if tomorrow, all humans worked together to end
suffering, pain and disease, death can never be overcome. The end of the
universe can never be overcome. What point in propagating genes
throughout the universe, when that universe will one day die. It is a
fruitless endeavour. It is like a preparing for a party that will never
happen. The birthday will not come. There is no endgame. No final pat on
the back. No thanks a lot chum, you really, really made a difference.
The people that will pat you on a back are those that are alive now.
When you’re dead it doesn’t matter if you were respected, or thought you
made a difference, as you won’t know anyone is patting you on the back.
So you care what the people around you today think? Why? You do know one
day they will all be dead? Why else might you care? Because you think
you’re important? That’s it. You have bought into the cult of the ego.
You think that you’re special. That in the grand scheme of the universe
you played a significant part. Why are you important? One day everything
you know will be destroyed. Fuck, “we don’t know shit”. We know it will
one day all end. The first part of this tale talks about happiness in
the belly of the Space Whale. Yet that is a best case scenario. An
imagining of a possible distant future. In reality the death of our
species will probably come much sooner. If it’s not avian bird flu, more
world wars, asteroids from outer space, it’s the earth being consumed by
the sun, or the final end of the universe. One day it will all be gone.
That means that you’re not special really. You’re a brief flash of
conscious experience. What does that mean anyway?

As that fleshy analogue computational device sitting between our ears is
testament to, brains have got big. They’ve got big dealing with job
number one. Survival. The fittest genes survive. Those best suited to
the environment live. Those unable to cope die. That’s evolution. What
is consciousness then? It is an ability to cope in an ever changing
environment. Our brains reached a point where mere assimilation of
sensory input analysis and behaviour grew into a sense of awareness
which allowed us to do more than ever before. We could develop ideas
about situations. How to get across a ravine. How to work together to
kill large prey. How to fashion tools to accomplish goals. And that was
it. That’s how an ape gets to become us.

Look at nature. The simplest life forms like bacteria and viruses are
far removed from human experience. Even much more complex organisms
remain detached from humans due to their lack of language skills and one
can suggest, inability to model even basic human like emotional states.
An ant is a biological machine. We have seen how natural selections can
produce highly complex biological mechanisms, that can work together to
propagate their genes. All animals are the same. Humans are no
different. Except that our complexity has reached a point of critical
mass. Much like a thermonuclear reaction, which requires a threshold of
material to be able to produce a reaction. Human species are the only
animals which have reached the critical mass of consciousness. And only
one human species remains today, to enjoy its unique being.

The ability to cope with and control the environment led to our
subsuming nature and technologically evolving. Consciousness allowed
this success. With technology and consciousness we have got further than
we could possibly imagine from the natural state of the universe. But it
means nothing. An ability to problem solve merely leaves us with an
overwhelming innate predisposition to better our conditions and solve
our problems. Except there is one problem that cannot be overcome. Death
is the end. Even if we can extend life spans to the point of near
infinite, the universe will one day die. Today the average lifespan is
65 in the west. Not long. So unless we are supremely rich, we cannot
hope to live longer. Therefore our time is limited, our experience
brief, our purpose an illusion. Break free from the shackles that WE
have created around us. The whole thing that you partake in everyday,
the whole human world is a construction made to give us a purpose. A
purpose which as we have said, is pointless. Would you rather toil under
a pointless illusion or would you rather know the truth?

So what do we do with this truth? Well I don’t know about you but I now
see the unit of existence as happiness. If I am not happy every second
that I am alive then I am not making the most of life. That being said,
I’m not being an idealist. I’m not suggesting it’s easy to achieve this
ends. But if we should strive for something, it should be happiness. But
what kind of happiness? Happiness is a chemical balance in your brain.
Endorphin release; equivalent, if you like, to being a heroin addict. So
then we should all acknowledge we are happiness junkies and do what?
Well since an AA meeting for happiness sounds to me like the very
opposite of how I want to live my life, perhaps then we should do
whatever makes us happy. Believe in fairies. Believe in God. Believe in
a purpose. It makes no difference to me, or the outcome of the fate of
the universe. But it makes you feel better. It causes endorphin release.
The junkie gets his fix. The world is good again. I don’t want to buy
into the illusion, the cult of the ego. But it makes no difference if I
do or don’t. Ignorance may really be bliss. But then it makes me happy
to know that I’m not living an illusion forced onto me by others. It is
an illusion of my own construction, tailored to my biology, to give me
the most satisfying endorphin-release-happiness-fix. I choose what’s
important. No king. No government. No thing can change the fate of the
universe. Who are you to me? My family. I love them. Love is the
ultimate endorphin release. My family yet to be? I will love them too.
My friends and friends to be. The same. What is love and where did it
come from? Well that warm feeling that being in love gives you, evolved
as we shared nests as apes in Africa. It is a primeval urge to be part
of a group, to care about your family members, to love. For those that
didn’t, died alone and didn’t propagate. Thank the genes for love. It is
wonderful that we can experience it. It releases endorphins and makes me
warm. Thank you DNA.

But you have to feed your family. You have to participate with those
that live in the illusion. So by all mean toil to a degree. If you want
to be a rock star or a nuclear scientist, do it if it makes YOU happy.
But understand that it is meaningless. If it’s fun to you, do it. What
about hurting others? That is a difficult question. Ultimately it makes
no difference what you do. But I have no wish for anarchic tyranny. I
don’t advocate indulging your sickest fantasies on random strangers. But
then what does it really matter? Jack the ripper, Hitler and disease
have all led to the deaths of people. All will be wiped from existence
one day. It is your own personal happiness which is important. Your
conscious experience. The memories and faculties which make you, you.
That wet pink organ whose physical properties result in you being you.
So as long as your brain’s happy, what does the rest of the purposeless
universe matter.

Be left wing. Care about people. Help people. Recycle. Save the whale.
If it makes you feel happy to help people, if it releases endorphins in
your brain, then do it. But admit that that is why you do it. That is
the ultimate purpose behind your action. Perhaps you do it because you
believe that there is an afterlife and you will be rewarded with
everlasting light and beauty. Lucky you. Isn’t that a selfish reason to
help. Fear of retribution. Desire for reward. Everything is ultimately
illusion. Why delude yourself. Why dance a tango with ideas and man made
notions? Do what you want and try to hurt as few people as possible.
Sounds like good advice.

So here I am. Happy. I have a loving, happy family. I work, but I do not
think I make a difference to the outcome of the universe. I don’t think
I’m important. It allows me to live with my family and enjoy as much
time as possible with them and my friends. I experience as much as I
can. If you are reading this at a time when you can cross the galaxy,
please take advantage of it. I want to experience things no other person
has ever done. I want to stand on an alien world for the very first
time. I want to see the future. Why? Because it would give me a kick.
I’d smile. Endorphins would be released. I would be happy. On my
deathbed would I want to change a thing? Probably. Would I change it?
Never. It was fun. Well with that hope, that one day mankind will
overcome its difficulties about living together and will develop
technologies that will enable reanimation of the long dead, we can go
about our existence laughing. One day everybody, everything, every atom
will be dead. Even if we can cheat death for a little while or for a
near eternity in the belly of the space whale, we will all cease to
exist. So be happy as much as you can and enjoy the rest of
experience...